How do i counter Brand as a melee?

VelvetCrotch·May 24, 2018·1 votes·1,369 views

It's a very srious quesion. I know dudes like Zed counter him. But when i e.g. pick Galio (who has much magic res) or Ziggs and locks Brand in after me - he literally destroys me with his OP passiv.

And yes, i even try to sidestep his W.

Edit: And i know Ziggs isnt melee, but has very low mobility (like brand, but with less burst)

**Edit 2: ** BIG thanks to everyone who answered below! There are some really helpful ideas!! Times like these i really like the community :3

13 Comments

KhristophorosMay 24, 20183 votes

As Ziggs (assuming you are mid) just push the minions and avoid fighting him. Brand's waveclear is a lot worse than Ziggs. Your win condition in this matchup is to get the first turret.

NevurwinMay 24, 20182 votes

{quoted}

As Ziggs (assuming you are mid) just push the minions and avoid fighting him. Brand's waveclear is a lot worse than Ziggs. Your win condition in this matchup is to get the first turret.

Agreed ^

I main Ziggs . This is not a fight you want to take head on. You can farm/poke from fog with Bouncing Bomb (Q) in this match up and zone him with Minefield (E) if he steps towards you. Always Save your Satchel Charge (W) if he slips past your (E) so you can avoid him. Your end goal here is to clear the wave as fast as you can, out sustain him, and take the tower. Avoid fighting, you will blow him up, along with his entire team, late game.

VelvetCrotchMay 25, 20181 votes

I'm not a mid-main, but Ziggs is one of my fav midlaners. I just like this char overall, but its like playin just sometimes Zed: you get very rusty. (i tink Ziggs is even harder to play, cause of his very unique but kinda vulnerable playstyle)

Warlord RhinarkMay 24, 20182 votes

item 3194

AzadetheMay 24, 20182 votes

You get Second Wind Runes/Tenacity or Nullifying Orb. The goal is to reduce the duration of stun, and use his dot to heal yourself.

KhristophorosMay 24, 20182 votes

Since you mentioned Galio

If you're about to get hit by either W or Q, use your W to reduce the damage. I know you can't dodge them every time but if you're good at Galio you should be able to cast W in reaction to when you know you will get hit.

All-in him whenever you can. If you land E you should win that trade or straight up kill him.

If you eat some damage immediately all-in him because his stuff is on cooldown.

MerlinezMay 24, 20181 votes

Why do you want to play a melee against brand again?

Anyways Brand isn't no where near strong in the mid lane, there's just better options, Annie, Zoe, Malzahar, Anivia. Brand's passive is nowhere near OP, just pick talon and all him level 2, q auto w auto ignite dead, he can't stun you unless he started Q-E which makes no sense.

Just whatever you do, whatever champion you decide to pick, do not try to trade or walk up to him after 3, stay behind minions and when he tries to W the minion wave, just distance yourself, he will lose mana.

When his mana bar goes out, just all in him, he typically runs out of mana lv 5, be careful for mana increase between level ups.

Zane ZephyrMay 24, 20182 votes

I mean he literally mentioned that he picked galio and brand got picked after him but anyway

VelvetCrotchMay 25, 20181 votes

ty [sg-ahri-2]

breakordoom444May 24, 20181 votes

Brand has high damage but even less mobility, if he misses a Q or W he's fucked for this trade, its easy to step out of his W if you are near the edge.

oh and item 3194 item 3157

WeatheredMay 24, 20181 votes

Often times you can draw out his abilities, especially W, if you start to go for an obvious lane minion and then stutter step either just before, or during the animation for auto attacking it. The Brand will assume you are going for the farm and will try to get free harass.

At this point, if you are using this method on a front line minion or a minion you have drawn aggro close to your tower, you can abuse the cooldown of his W and then attack. If you are playing a champion who can either easily dodge his q with a dash/blink, or can CC negate (for example, Kha'Zix's E will continue to move even when hit with CC in the middle of the jump), you should be able to get a very full rotation on him.

Pika FoxMay 24, 20181 votes

Engage on him. If youre by yourself with no minions around, he will just die. He has no escapes and no defensive CDs. All he can do is pray to eq fast enough and with mercs it wont save him.

Leona support counters brand support really hard as a result.

Just dont play passively. Dont be scared or afraid. Go ham and he will die, dont and he will just kill you.